Trump Administration Says Abortion Pill Study Not Being ‘Slow-Walked’

Regulators are analyzing the safety of mifepristone, an abortion pill.

A patient prepares to take mifepristone at a clinic in Carbondale, Ill., on April 20, 2023. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

The Trump administration on Dec. 10 denied allegations that its study on the safety of an abortion pill has been slowed down.

Bloomberg News had reported this week, citing anonymous sources, that Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary recently directed regulators to delay the study of mifepristone until after the 2026 midterm elections.

“The study is not being ‘slow walked,'” a White House official told The Epoch Times. “Comprehensive and exhaustive reviews take time.”

The FDA started the review earlier this year, following orders from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and an analysis of insurance claims that found that about one in 10 women who took mifepristone experienced serious adverse events. The review is “progressing and ongoing,” Kennedy told senators in the fall, citing Makary.

“Assertions that the FDA is slow walking this review for political purposes are baseless,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, the FDA’s parent agency, told The Epoch Times in an email. “FDA takes the time necessary to conduct comprehensive scientific reviews, and that is what Dr. Makary is ensuring as part of the Department’s commitment to gold-standard science and evidence-based reviews.”

Several activists, pointing to the report, have called on President Donald Trump to fire Makary.

“FDA is doing NOTHING while every day abortion drugs take the lives of children, put women & girls at serious risk, empower abusers, & trample state pro-life laws,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, wrote in a Dec. 9 post on X.

“If Dr Makary will not act as head of the FDA to protect children and mothers he should be fired,” Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action, said in another social media post.

Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said Trump would not be firing the FDA commissioner.

“FDA Commissioner Marty Makary is working diligently to ensure that Americans have the best possible, Gold Standard Science study of mifepristone,” Desai told The Epoch Times in an email.

“The White House maintains the utmost confidence in Commissioner Makary, whose leadership at the FDA has delivered and continues to deliver one landmark victory for the American people after another, from cracking down on artificial ingredients in our food supply to conducting the first safety review of baby formula in decades. Uninformed attacks against Commissioner Makary from individuals outside the Administration will not change these facts.”

After Trump’s second term started on Jan. 20, the FDA had an acting commissioner for a few months. Makary, a former doctor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, became commissioner on March 25.